by Matt Phelan
ages: 9+
First sentence: “It all began, as many great adventures begin, with a story.”
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It’s the late 19th century, and the time is ripe for exploration, adventure, new ideas. Over the course of 10 years, three different people, independently of each other, decide to make the voyage in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days a reality. Each chooses a different method of transportation, each takes a slightly different route, each has it’s own ups and downs.

Matt Phelan tells these three stories — Thomas Stevens, who traveled around the world on a bike (one of those old-fashioned ones with a big wheel); reporter Nellie Bly, who decided she would beat Verne’s story (and met Verne along the way); and sailore Joshua Slocum, who sailed the world, alone, in a schooner, at age 52 — in graphic novel form, simplifying them for his intended audience, and yet making them highly entertaining. I found myself interested in the stories and lives of these three, which is something that I didn’t expect to be.
 Out of the three stories, I found Thomas Stevens’ to be the most interesting. Around the world on a bike? Fascinating. But beyond the coolness of his traveling method, I thought Phelan’s art lent itself best to Stevens’ story. Nellie Bly’s worked okay, though I think a lot of the excitement and frustration she experienced were lost in the graphic novel form. And I didn’t follow Joshua Slocum’s story well at all. Perhaps that’s because as the stories went on, Phelan got more and more introspective, and it just wasn’t as interesting to me.  Or, perhaps I just suffered from the opposite: because it was a graphic novel, even though the art was grand, I felt like I was missing chunks of the story; I wanted more words, to fully understand what was going on.

But, overall, I’m glad I read it. It’s a good introduction to three little-known people who dared to adventure.